Example: For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection on her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded; each light deserting her with lingering regret; like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk. (14

Irony

Nobody wants to come to Gatsby's funeral; even though everyone wanted to come to his parties.

Metaphor

"...he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could come over"" some afternoon to a stranger's garden."

Imagery

The eyes of Dr T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retnias are a year high. They look out of no face; but instead from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose.

Personification

I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall.

Hyperbole

"When I came home to West Egg that night I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire. Two o'clock in the morning and the whole corner of hte peninsula was blazing with light...Turning a corner I saw that it was Gatsby's house; lit from tower to cellar.

Alliteration

his hand took hold of hers...

Allusion

He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919.

Paradox

And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.

Oxymoron

“two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.” (6)

Personification

“The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile; jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens…” (6)

Alliteration

“fantastic farm” “grotesque gardens” “obscure operations” (23)

Polysyndeton

“By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived; no thin five-piece affair; but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos; and low and high drums.” (40)

Symbol

The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg can be symbolic of God’s all-seeing eyes.

Symbol

Wolfshiem’s cufflinks made of human teeth are a symbol of his connection to the underworld.

Hyperbole

“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” (9)

Hyperbole

“The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left wheel painted black as a mourning wreath; and there’s a persistant wail all night along the north shore.” (10) – Nick on the subject of people in Chicago missing Daisy.

Allusion

Wolfsheim’s characterization as “the man who fixed the World Series” (74) serves as an allusion to the Black Sox scandal of 1919.

Motif

Geography serves as an important motif in The Great Gatsby as location helps to shape the novel’s themes and characters. (East Egg as odd upper-class traditions; West Egg as new money; celebrities; and wild lifestyles; and The valley of ashes as desperate and desolate)

Irony

Wolfsheim’s characterization as Jewish; yet the title of his office being “The Swastika Holding Company” (171).

Aphorism

"“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone; just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had."""

Simile

“Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch; like silver idols; weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans”

Flashback

When Jordan says “One October day in nineteen-seventeen.”

Metonymy

“…and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War”(3).

antecdote

the story about Jordan cheating in golf and lying about leaving the top down on the car